Monday, March 31, 2008

Sunday, March 30, 2008

The Prospect Park Zoo's recent marsupial addition was named Riley this week, following a public contest (even though no one knew the animal's gender!).

Riley is a Western Grey Kangaroo--a species native to Australia that can jump 30 feet at a time. Zoo keepers were only able to determine Riley's sex this week, which required that the names for the contest remain gender neutral (Kinta, Kylie, and Nari were the others).

In a vote organized by the cultural group Heart of Brooklyn, 208 submissions were winnowed to four options for voters, who determined that Riley was the best of the lot. Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, building his future constituency, announced the winner in front of many appreciative children and that Allison Make had submitted the winning name (apparently the 48th most popular name for baby girls in the city in 2006, 159th most popular for boys).

Friday, March 28, 2008

According to Wikipedia, The Hundredth Monkey Effect generally describes the instant, paranormal spreading of an idea or ability to the remainder of a population once a certain portion of that population has heard of the new idea or learned the new ability. However, for those of you that don't know the origin of this phenomenal Effect, you're not only going to get excited you're going to instantly re-realize how freaking similar we are, as today's modern civilization, to this wonderfully wild species.

The year was 1952. The setting was an island somewhere in the south seas. A few anthropologists were studying the behavior of the macaques, a Japanese Monkey native to the islands with a diet consisting primarily of sweet potatoes. By routine, the monkeys would dig up a potato, break it in half and eat only from the center in order to avoid the potato's sandy coat, discarding the rest. After one potato, the monkey would go back to dig another. One insightful afternoon, a pioneering monkey decided to rinse his potato, allowing him to eat it whole, and dig for fewer potatoes. Consequently, he not only began enjoying a cleaner habit, he instantly created more free time to enjoy the things he loved to do. Was he praised immediately?

Just the opposite. His family and friends just couldn't understand why he was doing something so different! Despite this, some of the onlooking monkeys became privy to the transition and began washing their potatoes too. Slowly but surely, many more of the surrounding monkeys shared in the innovation. Hundreds of monkeys continued to hold fast to their comfortable method even though they began to notice the abundance the other monkeys were enjoying at the beach. Now, supposedly when the hundredth monkey took the leap of faith, all the rest followed. Most remarkably and due to an evident mass consciousness, the paradigm immediately shifted amongst the monkeys inhabiting the neighboring islands too!

Thursday, March 27, 2008

A 58-year-old man who fed pigeons wearing only a skimpy thong which was back to front has been fined £150.

Neighbours spotted David Batchelor in his street in Perth in the underwear which left his genitals partly exposed.

Perth Sheriff Court heard that children walking home from school had been passing by at the time.

His lawyer said that Batchelor had been drunk and there was no sexual element to the way he had behaved. He admitted committing a breach of the peace.

When officers had turned up to investigate they found Batchelor still partially dressed and with his flimsy thong on the wrong way round.

At the court previously, Fiscal Depute Hannah Kennedy said: "The witnesses watched as the accused walked between the common close entrance and the pavement. He went behind some bushes outside his house.

"There were a large number of schoolchildren passing his home address at this stage.

"He returned to his flat then reappeared still wearing this item.

"It was still exposing his genitalia. The witnesses were alarmed by his actions and concerned for the children who had passed."

Batchelor claimed he had not seen anyone around, but then confessed he looked at everyone as they went past and the "schoolgirls were bonnie."

Mrs Kennedy added: "Asked why he did it, he replied 'I don't know. I was just feeding the birds and if I was wanting to do that I would just go down town and get a whore'."

Sheriff Michael Fletcher said: "The alcohol seems to be at the root of the problem and nothing much can be done about that, given his attitude towards it."

According to the Daily Mail, orphan and former cuteness-porn star Knut has let his child stardom go to his head. Markus Roebke, one of the Berlin Zoo's keepers, claims the larger-than-life polar bear (whose silver-screen debut comes this spring) is a "publicity-addicted psycho." Roebke adds, "he actually cries out or whimpers if he sees that there is not a spectator outside his enclosure ready to ooh and aah at him." Poor Knut. Looks like unless he wants to take the Corey Feldman route, he should do like Shirley Temple, quit the biz, and take to politics.

Bill Murray must have winced when he heard that mankind's latest salvo in the valiant war against gopher-dom ended in a massive explosion that sparked a prairie fire outside of Calgary, Alberta, over the weekend.

Even though there was a ban on fires in the area, two Canadian men went into a field with a device called the Rodenator.

The Rodenator dumps a mixture of propane and oxygen into gopher holes, then lights them up like a Fourth of July fireworks display, causing an underground shock wave, killing the gophers and collapsing their tunnels.

Problem was, after a couple of successful blasts, the two Canucks overfilled one of the holes, and the flames jumped out and onto the dry grass, starting a fire that threatened several homes and caused $200,000 in damage.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Call them Pavlov's fish: Scientists are testing a plan to train fish to catch themselves by swimming into a net when they hear a tone that signals feeding time.

If it works, the system could eventually allow black sea bass to be released into the open ocean, where they would grow to market size, then swim into an underwater cage to be harvested when they hear the signal.

What's next, teaching them to coat themselves in batter and hop inside a fryer?

"It sounds crazy, but it's real," said Simon Miner, a research assistant at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Wood's Hole, which received a $270,000 grant for the project from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Miner said the specially trained fish could someday be used to bolster the depleted black sea bass stock. Farmed fish might become better acclimated to the wild if they can be called back for food every few days.

The bigger goal is to defray the costs of fish farming, an increasingly important source of the world's seafood. If fish can be trained to return to the farmer after feeding in the open ocean for several days, farms could save money on feed and reduce the amount of fish waste released in concentrated areas.

For the upcoming BBC documentary series Tiger - Spy in the Jungle, filmmakers enlisted the help of elephants to capture the tigers with hidden HD cameras. The large "trunk cam" (pictured here) was the most ludicrous of the devices carried by the elephants, while the smaller, lighter "tusk cam" proved to be easier for the elephants to carry for long periods of time. In addition, various log and rock cams were placed along the ground and activated by motion sensors when animals came close.

Apparently elephants move so smoothly that the improvised footage resembles that shot with a Steadicam rig. Look for the show on BBC One this Sunday, March 30th.

Source: GizmodoHere's what it looks like when a sloth bear checks out its reflection in the lens.

Sunday, March 23, 2008

What is it about sugary-sweet marshmallow Peeps that makes us want to violate them, dress up them up and take pictures?

Peeps have used their mind-numbing cuteness to take over the Internet with over 200 websites, as well as two Peeps diorama photo contests hosted by the Seattle Times and the Washington Post. They have been the best-selling, non-chocolate Easter candy for a decade, and the amount of Peeps that will be eaten this year, if lined up, would circle the globe.

Friday, March 21, 2008

The United Nations General Assembly designated 22 March of each year as the World Day for Water by adopting a resolution.This world day for water was to be observed starting in 1993, in conformity with the recommendations of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development contained in chapter 18 (Fresh Water Resources) of Agenda 21.

States were invited to devote the Day to implement the UN recommendations and set up concrete activities as deemed appropriate in the national context.

1.1 billion people lack access to an improved water supply - approximately one in six people on earth.

A person can live weeks without food, but only days without water.

A person needs 4 to 5 gallons of water per day to survive.

Almost two in three people lacking access to clean water live on less $2 a day.

A rare case of vandalism is being labeled as an act of animal cruelty by local officials.

At a North Carolina family horse farm, intruders have targeted the Lawrence family’s show horses, hacking into five of the horses’ tails over the past two months.

“It’s a situation that makes no sense,” said Barry Lawrence, owner. “Someone has come onto the property and harvested major sections of the tails of some of our show horses here.”

While the crime seems random, the family believes the thief’s motive was for profit and gain.

“My guess is that it probably has something to do with horse hair jewelry or buck tail fishing lures,” said Lawrence.

But, the crime is costing the family. In the show ring, gauges and chops into a horse’s tail will cause point deductions.

“The impact could be thousands of dollars in lost winnings, if you will, in lost shows,” Lawrence said.

The show ring isn’t the only place the horses’ vandalized tails will have a negative effect. As the summer heat arrives, the horses will be left without an effective way to cool themselves or to swat away biting flies.

“We will have to keep our show horses in the barn and barn feed them, until they regain enough of their tail enough to do that,” said Barry Lawrence.

Depending on breed and diet, a horse’s tail will grow three to four inches a year.

With no other farms being targeted, Rockingham County Sherriff Sam Page said, “To me it sounds like a bit of harassment of something going on.”

According to Sherriff Page, whoever is responsible could face multiple charges, including injury to real property, larceny, trespassing and a misdemeanor in cruelty to animals.

“It’s a cruel thing and again we want to do our part to identify who is causing these problems and bring them to justice,” said Sherriff Page.

I have created a new cage for my hamsters!This state of the art cage was build entirely of plexi glass.Now you can see that hamsters better!The back wall has a flat screen mounted on it, so the background can change and display whatever i want. Right now it is showing a NY skyline at night.

The camera moves around zooming in on anything the moves! That way viewers can get a closer look at the hamsters when they eat, sleep or run on the wheel!

The secret of a moose's exceptional hearing is down to its antlers, apparently. Scientists have discovered that those cool, gnarly things that look so fabulous perched atop the furry freaks act as amplifiers, allowing Mr Moose to be able to hear things up to 2 miles away. Added to the animal's already acute hearing—it's to do with its large ears that rotate in almost every direction, apparently—antlers improve the beast's audio capacities by as much as 19 per cent.

The father-and-son team of George and Peter Bubenik used an artificial moose ear that had been created by TV special effects team, and mounted a pair of antlers on top of it. A microphone and sound meter were placed in the ear canal, and a speaker set up 30 feet from the ear, which was rotated into different positions.

When a sound was played through the speaker (something by The Rasmus springs to mind) the sound meter recorded 59.5 decibels when the ear was facing the source of the sound, and 57.5 decibels when it was facing backwards. But when it was moved into a sideways position, and where the antlers worked as an amp, the level came out at 61 decibels.

It was the judgment the Smoak family was hoping for, but not the kind they ever wanted to hear.

A federal jury awarded James Smoak $9,100 and found Sgt. David Bush guilty of using excessive force against Smoak.

The case stemmed from a traffic stop on New Year’s day in 2003, when the Tennessee Highway Patrol stopped the family on Interstate 40.

Mistaken as robbery suspects the Smoaks were forced out of their vehicle as a patrol car video captured the disturbing events that transpired.

The video shows the family’s pleas of protest that they were just vacationing and passing through on their return trip home to North Carolina.

The Smoaks then plead with the officers to close their car door. Their 55-pound mix breed bulldog, General Patton, was still inside.

“I got a dog in the car and I don’t want him to come out,” James Smoak’s voice is heard on the video.

But in the process, Patton escapes the car and can be scene on the side of the road wagging his tail. In a matter of seconds, a Cookville police officer shot the pet with a shot gun at close range.

Smoak tried to help his dog but he’s forced to the ground and injured by highway patrol Sgt. Bush. General Patton died on the spot and Smoak was lead to a waiting patrol car, crying “you shot my dog, you shot my dog! Oh, my God!”

The federal jury’s verdict settles the issue of excessive force used by Bush of the Tennessee Highway Patrol.

The city of Cookeville compensated the family more than $77,000 for their officer’s actions in a separate lawsuit.

Jerry Andrews, a lieutenant at the time of the incident, was also named in the case, but found not responsible, while Bush was the trooper responsible for handcuffing Smoak.

The Easter Bunny is a rabbit character who brings gifts and candy to children on the Easter holiday.

Eggs, like rabbits and hares, are fertility symbols of extreme antiquity; since birds lay eggs and rabbits and hares give birth (to large litters) in the early spring, these became symbols of the rising fertility of the earth at the Vernal Equinox.

In English, the word "Easter" etymologically comes from an ancient pagan goddess of the spring named Eostre, related to German Ostara. According to a popular piece of folklore, Eostre once saved a bird whose wings had frozen during the winter by turning it into a rabbit. Because the rabbit had once been a bird, it could still lay eggs, and that rabbit became the modern Easter Bunny.

The precise origin of the custom of coloring eggs is not known, although it too is ancient; Greeks to this day typically dye their Easter eggs red, the color of blood, in recognition of the renewal of life in springtime (and, later, the blood of the sacrificed Christ). Some also use the color green, in honor of the new foliage emerging after the long "dead" time of winter.

German Protestants wanted to retain the Catholic custom of eating colored eggs for Easter, but did not want to introduce their children to the Catholic rite of fasting. Eggs were forbidden to Catholics during the fast of Lent, which was the reason for the abundance of eggs at Easter time.

The idea of an egg-laying bunny came to the United States in the 18th century. German immigrants in the Pennsylvania Dutch area told their children about the "Osterhas" , sometimes spelled out as "Oschter Haws". "Hase" means "hare", not rabbit, and in Northwest European folklore the "Easter Bunny" indeed is a hare, not a rabbit. According to the legend, only good children received gifts of colored eggs in the nests that they made in their caps and bonnets before Easter.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

He is the unintentional result of two enormous big cats living close together at the Institute of Greatly Endangered and Rare Species, in Miami , Florida , and already dwarfs both his parents."Ligers are not something we planned on having,"said institute owner Dr Bhagavan Antle."We have lions and tigers living together in large enclosures and at first we had no idea how well one of the lion boys was getting along with a tiger girl, then lo and behold we had a Liger."

Hercules likes to swim, a feat unheard of among water-fearing lions.On a typical day he will devour 20 lb of meat, usually beef or chicken, and is capable of eating 100 lb at a single setting. In the wild it is virtually impossible for lions and tigers to mateNot only are they enemies likely to kill one another.But incredible though he is, Hercules is not unique.Ligers have been bred in captivity, deliberately and accidentally,since shortly before World War II

Today there are believed to be a handful of ligers around the world and a similar number of tigons, the product of a tiger father and lion mother. Tigons are smaller than ligers and take on more physical characteristics of the tiger.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

You can accuse the disgraced ex-governor Eliot Spitzer of many things in his decision to flout the law by soliciting the services of a pricey prostitute: hypocrisy, egomania, sophomoric impulsiveness and self-indulgence, delusional ineptitude and boneheadedness. But one trait decidedly not on display in Mr. Spitzer’s splashy act of whole-life catabolism was originality.

It’s all been done before, every snickering bit of it, and not just by powerful “risk-taking” alpha men who may or may not be enriched for the hormone testosterone. It’s been done by many other creatures, tens of thousands of other species, by male and female representatives of every taxonomic twig on the great tree of life. Sexual promiscuity is rampant throughout nature, and true faithfulness a fond fantasy. Oh, there are plenty of animals in which males and females team up to raise young, as we do, that form “pair bonds” of impressive endurance and apparent mutual affection, spending hours reaffirming their partnership by snuggling together like prairie voles or singing hooty, doo-wop love songs like gibbons, or dancing goofily like blue-footed boobies.

Yet as biologists have discovered through the application of DNA paternity tests to the offspring of these bonded pairs, social monogamy is very rarely accompanied by sexual, or genetic, monogamy. Assay the kids in a given brood, whether of birds, voles, lesser apes, foxes or any other pair-bonding species, and anywhere from 10 to 70 percent will prove to have been sired by somebody other than the resident male.

When you take your dog along for a ride, but prefer not having it inside the car, it can ride safely and comfortably in this sack, which is carried on the running board. The bottom of the sack is clamped to the running board and the top is fastened to the lower part of an open window with hooks, covered with small rubber tubing to prevent marring the car.

Friday, March 14, 2008

Now we're not saying this is totally cruel - this cat may really love open doors on airplanes, heights, plummeting to the earth and being strapped to his owner's stomach - but we're just going to observe that the whole experience must have been really strange for that cat's little, little brain to process. We imagine it went something like this: 'food, water, play, scratch, sleep, food, water, play, scratch, sleep, food, confusion, terror, YEEOOOW!). It seems like the people had a lot of love for the cat - though we're not really sure what the point was - so we trust it was ok in the end.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Easter gives Londoners a rare opportunity to spend quality time with their loved ones in airport departure lounges while their flights are delayed or stuck on gridlocked roads. The four-day weekend is a green light to escape -- but with the school Easter holidays and an entire country trying to get out and back in at the same time, it's not such a wise move. You could stay in, gorge yourself on some low-quality egg shaped confectionery and watch bad 80s films on TV. Or you could get out there and meet some little fluffy bunnies, adorable lambs and the occasional pig or donkey. Yes, London has many city farms -- some are of the We Only Have Three Animals But There's A Nice Café variety and some are more like proper working farms. They're at their best in spring and are the perfect destressing activity (provided your visit doesn't coincide with that of the screaming child who has just made the connection between the lamb on the farm and the lamb on the lunch table). Fill up a bucket of feed and go pet your new furry friends; if your inner kid is lucky, there might even be an Easter egg hunt.

An overabundance of kangaroos munching on native grasses near Australia's capital, Canberra, has left the government little choice but to kill some of the pesky marsupials, authorities say.

In Canberra and elsewhere in the island nation, kangaroos are becoming pests that overgraze native grasslands and compete with domestic livestock for food.

This concern has led the government of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), which includes Canberra, to prepare for an April cull of 400 eastern gray kangaroos from an unused defense site just a few miles from the city's parliament house.

The 287-acre (116-hectare) location is also home to endangered species of moth and grasshopper, which rely on the vulnerable native grasses for survival.

"We want kangaroos in the same environment, but just not in the same numbers," said Maxine Cooper, ACT's commissioner for the environment and author of a report that recommended the extermination plan.

"Culling any animal is a concern, but the real issue across the world is that we're losing species daily. The eastern gray kangaroo is not under threat—but there are threatened species on this site," Cooper said.

I don't really get this, how do you re-discover something. just because nobody has seen it in a few years. We haven't been back to the moon since the 60's does that mean some other country can just go there and re-discover it? i think this is a silly concept.

With such flashy looks, this aptly named harlequin frog seems like it would be easy to spot.

But scientists hadn't seen one of its kind for 14 years, until it was "rediscovered" last month in the mountain forests of Colombia.

The rare find—technically known as a Carrikeri harlequin frog—is some welcome good news for South America's amphibian species, which have been disappearing at an alarming rate, experts say.

But for other amphibians in the region—including dozens of other harlequin frog species—the prospects remain grim, said Luis Rueda, a biologist with the nonprofit Conservation Leadership Program who led the expedition that made the find.

The rediscovery of the Carrikeri harlequin—high in Colombia's Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountain range—may mark the last stand for this genus of frog against the advancing epidemic.

I think i am going to re-discover something from my closet that nobody has seen in 14 years.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

A French hunter is on trial, facing serious charges over the shooting of what was likely the last native female Pyrenees bear in existence.

In 2004, French hunter Rene Marqueze was hunting boar in the Aspe valley in the Pyrenees mountains near the French border with Spain. Marqueze shot and killed the bear, which had been named Cannelle, allegedly in self defense.

The Pyrenees bear no longer exists in the wild. Every native bear was hunted to extinction, with the bear Marqueze shot supposedly the last native female.

The case of Marqueze and Cannelle drew heaps of media attention. Former French President Jacques Chirac called the animal’s death a “great loss for biodiversity”. It sparked a movement to reintroduce bears to the region which saw several bears imported from Slovenia. Finally, it sparked Marqueze’s trial, which was the result of an action brought by several environmental groups against him for killing a protected species.

Marqueze says he shot the bear in self defense when he was surprised by the animal. He said “She was standing on her hind legs, her two ears were standing up. She raced forward when I saw her, I took off to get out of her way but she didn’t hesitate, she charged me from behind.”

Many environmentalists think otherwise. Francois Ruffie is a lawyer working for the two environmental groups that brought the action against Marqueze. Ruffie says that Marqueze was aware of the presence of the bear, which was also travelling with cubs, and that there was no way he could have been surprised by the bear.

Ruffie said: “Everyone who uses natural spaces has rights but also responsibility and hunters, who use weapons, most of all.”

If convicted, Marqueze faces up to nine months in prison and a nine thousand Euro fine. He has the backing of the local community, however. Livestock herders in the Pyrenees were thrilled that the bear disappeared. It allowed them to leave their flocks mostly unattended without danger. They are fiercely opposed to recent efforts to reintroduce the bear to the mountain range.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Hi,We are looking to cast a WILD ANIMAL EXPERT to host a new TV series for a major cable network. Ideal candidates have educational and professional experience in the field, are adventurous, outdoorsy, age 30-50. Must be charismatic, smart, with great communication skills, who's not afraid to get his hands dirty...or be up close and personal with dangerous animals in the wild. The Host is the expert so must be able to communicate his expertise in an engaging way. This is a show about wild animals around the world -- must be willing to travel.

Big opportunity for the person chosen. You'll be the face of the show, which will air and be promoted nationally.

We are looking for a combination of expertise and personality.

To be considered, please film yourself or have someone film you answering the following questions and send me the tape (VHS, DVD, or mini-DV formats only) by Friday, March 14, 2008. 5-10 minutes max. Shoot outdoors if possible. Please also send a photo of yourself and your bio/resume. Materials will not be returned.

- Your name, where you live, your occupation- Describe your expertise relating to wild animals and the outdoors. - Describe your experience working with wild animals, specifically in the field- If you're hiking a mountain and a lion approaches, explain what you should do. Further explain what to do if the lion attacks you.- What is the most dangerous encounter or experience you've ever had (animal related or other)?- This show will have you out in the wild, communicating to viewers what to do in the event of an encounter with a deadly animal. The experience will be authentic -- you really will be on location encountering wild animals. Are you willing to do that?- If possible, show us you working with or encountering a wild animal.

A recent study conducted in Indonesia shows that male primates "paid" for sexual access to females in the form of pre-sex rituals, and that the success of these rituals was reduced as the number of available females went up. Although the conclusions are not decisive, it is suggested that sex is a "currency" in the monkeys' biological market.

In a recent study of macaque monkeys in Indonesia, researchers found that males performed several services in order to encourage females to agree to sexual intercourse. The article, "Payment for Sex in a Macaque Mating Market," was published in the December issue of Animal Behavior and is based on the work of a group of scientists led by Michael David Gumert from Hiram College in Ohio. It describes the behavior of about 50 long-tailed macaques in Kalimantan Tengah, Indonesia. After observing the monkeys for about 20 months, the scientists concluded that after the males performed their grooming ritual, sexual activity more than doubled: from an average of 1.5 times an hour to 3.5 times an hour. The study also showed that the amount of time that males spent grooming hinged on the number of females available at the time. For instance, as the number of females increased, the males spent less time picking nits off the females.

Sunday, March 9, 2008

A bear was walking across the "Rainbow Bridge" in Truckee California, on the I-80, California / Nevada State line, when two cars also crossed the bridge from both directions. The bear was so scared, with no place to run, made a leap over the side of the bridge...FULL STORY with pictures!